“I’ve had two years to grow claws, mother- Jungle red!” “The Women”(1939) Written: Lauren



Well I have finally come to my all time favorite year in Hollywood history, 1939. Arguably the best year in cinema history, more films made and released during this year have remained classic cinematic masterpieces than any other year to date. I could go on and on about Gone With the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Stagecoach, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Dark Victory, Wuthering Heights et cetera. But for today I will stick with a film that has remained one of my top ten favorites for years. George Cukor’s 1939 bitch fest film, The Women.

Forget the God awful 2008 remake starring Meg Ryan. Think of Mean Girls (2004) before there was an Amy Poehler walking around in a pink jump suit flaunting her newly sculpted bosom. The dialogue and story line in The Women is so fast, so perfectly delivered, and somewhat racy yet realistic that even after seventy-six years women can still relate. 

I could write a twenty page thesis on this film but for the readers sake, I will stick to a few aspects of the film that I find most interesting. First Mommie Dearest herself, Joan Crawford. Crawford’s beautiful face had adorned the screen for some time before The Women was made, and it would continue to for over thirty years. Yes her best performance is arguably in Michael Curtiz’s 1945 Academy Award winning film, Mildred Pierce, but in The Women we see a different type of performance that she will never again duplicate during her career. Maybe it’s because the character of Crystal Allen resembles Crawford herself perfectly. She plays a money hungry, low class, husband stealing, will do anything to make it to the top, manipulating, absolutely gorgeous bitch. Her character never apologizes for being such, and by the end of the film the audience understands that Crystal will never have what all the other women have or want. A family and a loving, faithful husband.



Thankfully George Cukor was able to pull a performance out of Crawford in which she is a masterful seductress who detests Norma Shearer’s character Mary Haines, more than her job as a perfume girl. How Cukor was ever able to finish this picture in a sane mind set is beyond me. Crawford and Shearer notoriously had bad blood with each other dating back to 1927 when Shearer married MGM “Boy Wonder”, Irving Thalberg. Crawford was even quoted at one point in saying, “How can I compete with Norma when she’s sleeping with the boss?”. The two hated each other so much that they each refused to walk into publicity shooting for the film because neither one wanted to walk in first.



Crawford, Cukor and Shearer taking part in awatermelon eating contest on set.

Crawford wasn’t the only one that had issues with Shearer during production. In Rosalind Russell’s autobiography she stated that Shearer refused to share top billing. Subsequently Russell called in sick and stayed sick, haulting production, until Shearer agreed to share. Ironically the pettiness that was shown on screen mirrored the fiasco that was happening off screen.

But enough about drama. After watching this film for at least the tenth time I noticied another element of this film that I had really never thought profoundly about before, the mother/daughter relationship. Mary’s mother, played by character actress Lucile Watson, depicts one of the best portrayals of a strong mother/daughter bond I have yet to see up until that point in cinema. The way in which she looks at her daughter, comforts her, goofs around with her and gives her advice illustrates a mama bear mentality that many woman exude towards their children. Take for instance this line, which may be one of the best pieces of advice a woman can hear.

He’s not tired of you, he’s tired of himself. He’s tired of feeling the same thing’s in himself. Times come when a man has to feel something new, when he’s got to feel young again just because he’s growing old. We women are so much more sensible when we tire of ourselves. We change the we way we do our hair, or cook, or decorate the house. I suppose a man could do over his office but he never thinks of something so simple. No dear, a man has only one escape from his old self. To see a different self in the mirror of some women’s eyes. 

If that’s not good screen writing, I don’t know what is! Mary’s mother goes as far as to drive her to a train station headed for the divorcee capital of the world in the 1930’s Reno. A place that represents a women’s choice, and a taboo that was severely shunned by Hollywood screenplay’s through out most of cinema’s infamous Production Code era. 

I said it before and I’ll say it again, I could go on and on about this film. Such as Rosalind Russell’s hilariously sad depiction of a woman consumed by gossip, the issues that plague most marriages, and the absolute cruelty women bestow upon each other. Yes this may be a “chick flick” from the 1930’s but it’s a rather good one. It’s quick, tragic and hilarious. So men, If you ever want to witness the brutality of gossiping women and the utmost manipulation tactics women can perform, do not look to your ex, go watch The Women.